A Decoupage Mystery 02 - Cut to the Corpse

A sticky situation in the second Decoupage mystery.
Decoupage teacher Brenna Miller is in over her head when she finds bride-to-be Tara with her fiance's dead best friend-and Tara holding the murder weapon. It's up to Brenna to get to the truth before Tara's future turns to shreds.

Design for Murder

Annie is asked to stage a murder for the annual spring house tour sponsored by the Historical Society of Chastain, South Carolina. Her only problem is deciding which fictional murder to stage--until a corpse turns up in the town pond. The second Annie Laurance/Max Darling novel. Original.

Wilful Behaviour

Mystery lovers everywhere are addicted to Donna Leon's ever-honorable Commissario Guido Brunetti and her portrayal of Venice's beautiful but sinister byways and canals. In Willful Behavior, Brunetti is approached for a favor by one of his wife's students. Intelligent and serious , Claudia Leonardo asks for his help in obtaining a pardon for a crime once committed by her now-dead grandfather. Brunetti thinks little of it-until Claudia is found dead. Soon, another corpse and an extraordinary art collection lead Brunetti to long-buried secrets of Nazi collaboration and the exploitation of Italian Jews-secrets few in Italy want revealed.

Written in Bone

On the remote Hebridean island of Runa, a grisly discovery awaits the arrival of forensic anthropologist Dr. David Hunter. A body - almost totally incinerated but for the feet and a single hand - has been found. The local police are quick to record an accidental death but Hunter's instincts say otherwise: he's convinced it's murder. In fact Runa is far from the peaceful community it first appears - and a burned corpse is only one of its dark secrets.

Then an Atlantic storm descends, severing all power and contact with the mainland. And as the storm rages, the killing begins in earnest...

Preaching to the Corpse: An Advice Column Mystery

The most fun in the book, I thought, came from the bitterness of the search. One church lady denounces a female candidate, at one point, because she believes the job should go to a man. "We just aren't built the same way," she explains. A man, meanwhile, is hostile to a candidate he suspects is gay.

After several fun twists and turns, the book ends in an improbable, but exciting, way that makes Preaching to the Corpse, all in all, a very fun ride.

Looking forward to the next installment.